Management of Education

Tulisan yang disajikan dalam buku ini membahas berbagai hal
tentang masalah pendidikan Islam, khususnya di Indonesia. Ia mencerminkan tentang “apa yang semestinya diraih menurut ukuran
ideal dengan apa yang senyatanya dapat diraih”. Intinya, tentang
harapan dan kenyataan pendidikan Islam di Indonesia. Hampir seluruh tulisan tersebut pernah dipresentasikan dalam diskusi Madrasah Malem Reboan (MMR). Ada yang berupa makalah yang sengaja disiapkan untuk diskusi. Ada pula yang berasal dari hasil penelitian di antaranya ditulis dalam disertasi. Pemaparanya dalam buku
ini dimulai tentang pendidikan menengah dan diakhiri seputar pendidikan tinggi.

Executive Summary

The primary and secondary education system in Kazakhstan has accomplished significant achievements. It has managed to reach almost universal access to primary and secondary education, and few differences are observed in enrolment by geographical location, socio-economic background and gender. Although the level of education attainment of the population is high, the performance of Kazakh 15 year-olds in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2012 suggests that there is considerable room to improve the quality of student learning outcomes. In mathematics, Kazakh students are on average two years behind their peers in OECD countries and about 45% of them are low performers, a proportion significantly above the OECD average (23%). The language of instruction in schools, school location, and the socioeconomic background of students and schools make a difference in student performance. National and international assessments also suggest marked differences in educational outcomes between urban and rural areas.

Kazakhstan has embarked on profound reforms to improve the quality of the education system and is increasingly looking to international standards and best practices. Reform initiatives include the expansion of the pre-primary education network, the development of new mechanisms of school financing (including a new per capita funding scheme), the creation of resource centres to support small-class schools, further investment in school infrastructure and a wider use of information technologies in schools. In this context of reforms, while there is an apparent desire to increase resources devoted to education and awareness that spending per student remains markedly lower than the OECD average and that of other neighbouring countries, there remains an official reluctance to expand public expenditure on education which is linked to concerns about both the sector’s efficiency and its absorptive capacity. This report analyses the effectiveness of the Kazakh school system and identifies policy areas with potential efficiency gains or requiring further public investment. The following policy priorities were identified to improve the effectiveness of resource use in the Kazakh school system.

Kazakhstan underinvests in education in comparison with other countries with similar income. The lack of adequate resources is reflected at a range of levels such as low enrolment rates in pre-primary education; poorly remunerated teachers; overcrowded urban schools; and poorly equipped small-class schools. At the same time, there is considerable scope for a more efficient management of resources in areas such as the school network and the teaching workforce. A gradual increase in public spending is needed to meet the ambitions set out in the sector’s strategic documents. Additional resources should be prioritised where these can have the greatest impact: early educational years and support to low performing and disadvantaged schools.

Achieving considerable efficiency gains and ensuring that additional resources are well-spent, however, would require changes in governance structures. There is a need to strengthen the capacity to effectively manage and monitor the use of resources across all levels. In particular, insufficient local and school autonomy hinders effectiveness of resource use. Schools and rayons have little flexibility to invest more in human resources (by increasing staffing levels or by raising teacher salaries) if these are more acutely needed, or alternatively to invest in physical resources (school buildings, school equipment such as smart boards), if the present ones are insufficient or outdated. In addition, local and regional governments have very little spending discretion as norms determine how resources should be allocated and intergovernmental transfers have a very limited equalisation effect. A gradual increase of autonomy coupled with accountability and capacity building mechanisms could enable a more effective use of resources at the local and school level.

The distribution of resources to schools is currently decided on a discretionary and incremental basis by rayons in consideration of national norms but steps have been taken towards the development of a per-student school funding scheme. This is a positive move as a well-designed funding formula can, under certain conditions, be the most efficient, equitable, stable and transparent method of funding schools. Before national roll-out, the formula could be refined to take greater account of students' needs, capture better differences in class size across the country and increase its simplicity.

A wide-ranging review of school network organisation could shed light on potential expansions or downsizings of school facilities in light of demographic trends. A vision for the provision of education in rural areas could be developed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of the large number of small-class schools, which are a result of a policy to ensure universal access to compulsory schooling. Kazakhstan should sustain the efforts to remove three-shift schools and explore ways to minimise the impact of doubleshift schools on younger students. There is also a need to adjust the norms for instructional hours to be more in line with OECD averages for official instructional time, particularly for students in grades 1-4. Having a relatively short school day, in terms of hours of instruction, may place children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those who may be struggling, at risk of failure.

More and more, the focus needs to shift towards providing education that promotes equity by recognising and meeting different educational needs. There is no systematic policy to support students who are falling behind. There is little provision of early support to avoid that students fall behind, with personalised and intensive intervention. A greater focus on addressing underperformance is needed in Kazakhstan. Ensuring that schools provide their students with adequate and timely support is essential to enable struggling students not only to stay at school but to get the most of their schooling years. Schools should be encouraged to use early warning systems to identify students at risk and support them as early as possible. This is in contrast with the overemphasis placed on top performing students. Also, schools in Kazakhstan appear to be making slow progress in accommodating children with disabilities.

There is scope to strengthen the quality of teachers and school leaders. Professional standards could be developed to clarify expectations of what systems of initial education and professional development should aim to achieve, serve as a framework for the selection of candidates in recruitment processes, offer the credible reference for making judgements about their competence, guide professional development, and provide the basis for career advancement. Initial teacher education and professional development opportunities could be reviewed to ensure that these provide a solid foundation for teachers and adequately respond to their needs. In the case of school leaders, improvements in their recruitment, professional development and appraisal are needed to tap on their potential role in leading school improvement.

There is an imperative need to reconsider the number of staff and their remuneration. Current student-teacher ratios indicate that there might be some oversupply of teachers in the system. Increasing student-teacher ratios and class sizes could free up resources to further invest in teachers' professionalisation and remuneration. Also, the conception of teacher employment, whereby basic compensation is associated uniquely to the teacher’s teaching load (stavka system), is a source of concern as it does not appropriately recognise the many tasks a teacher accomplishes beyond teaching and reduces his or her engagement in school activities. As a result, teacher employment needs to be reconceptualised and the stavka system should be discontinued. The objective is to raise the professionalism of teachers, which can also be supported by better and more restricted selection into the profession and possibly fewer teachers with better salaries.

Kazakhstan recognises the importance of teacher and school evaluation but there is scope to strike a better balance between the currently prevailing accountability function and the improvement one. Clearly, there needs to be a stronger emphasis on teacher and school evaluation for development purposes where evaluation results lead to genuine professional discussions about effective teaching and teachers and schools receive advice for the improvement of pedagogical practices. There is ample room to improve the external and independent monitoring systems of Kazakhstan’s education system. The current monitoring approach is compliance-driven and entails no analysis of educational performance. As such, it is limited in the way it evaluates efficiency, equity, and value for money. An external independent monitoring system for school resource use should be a priority. External and independent bodies would strengthen the analysis of the ample data generated by existing monitoring systems. Enhancing the transparency and reporting framework is also likely to help reduce the opportunities for misallocation of resources and corruption that exist throughout the system, although a complementary policy to reduce loopholes in the system of norms is also needed.

Öz Bu çalışmanın amacı, okullarda bakım ve onarım politikalarını ve buna ilişkin yöneticilerin görüşlerini belirlemektir. Bu bağlamda merkezi politikaları incelemek ve bu merkezi politikaların uygulamadaki yansımalarını bütüncül bir şekilde ortaya koy-mak amaçlanmıştır. Bu çalışma nitel araştırma yöntemi benimsenerek olgu bilim deseni çerçevesinde yürütülmüştür. Bunun için doküman incelemesi ve görüşme tekniği kulla-nılmıştır. Öncelikle Türkiye'de kamu okullarında bakım, onarım ve tadilata ilişkin süre-cin nasıl işlediği ile ilgili mevzuat incelenerek çıkarımlar yapılmıştır. Daha sonra farklı kademedeki okul türlerinde görev yapmakta olan 18 okul yöneticisi ile yarı yapılandı-rılmış mülakatlar yapılmıştır. Her bir soru bir tema kabul edilerek elde edilen veriler özetlenmiş ve bu sonuçların frekans düzeyleri hesaplanmıştır. Elde edilen sonuçlar tab-lolaştırılmış ve katılımcıların görüşlerinden doğrudan alıntılar yapılarak görüşler des-teklenmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda yöneticilerin en çok karşılaştıkları bakım ve onarım sorunlarının ıslak zemin alanlarıyla ilgili (f=13) olduğu anlaşılmıştır. Bakım ve onarıma ilişkin sorunları çözerken mali konularda (f=15) ve hizmetlerin geç gelmesi (f=5) konu-sunda sıkıntı yaşadıkları görülmektedir. Yöneticilere göre her okula özel bir bütçe ay-rılması (f=10) veya profesyonel bir bakım-onarım ekibi kurularak okullara gönderilmesi (f=5) sorunları aşmada yardımcı olacaktır. Buna göre mevzuatta bakım-onarım sürecini kolaylaştıracak ve hızlandıracak bir takım düzenlemelere gidilmesi önerilebilir. Ayrıca okul yöneticilerine hizmetiçi eğitim kapsamında bütçe yönetimi ve çevre ile ilişkilerin geliştirilmesi hususlarında bilgi verilebilir. * Bu çalışma, Gaziantep'te düzenlenen "10. Ulusal Eğitim Yönetimi Kongresi"nde sözlü bildiri olarak sunulmuştur.

Niels Åkerstrøm Andersen & Justine Grønbæk Pors (2021): “From self-evident norms to contingent couplings: A systems-theoretical analysis of changes in the relationship between schools and the function systems in Denmark”, European Educational Research Journal,
Taking a point of departure in the paradoxical fact that the increase in educational knowledge leads to an increase in uncertainty for educational organisations, this article explores how uncertainty and contingency have increasingly become an integral part of school governance. The article draws on Niklas Luhmann's theory of 'World Society' as a functional differentiated society providing a range of different symbolic media for educational organisations. To trace the increase in the complexity of governing, we provide a historical account of the shifting couplings between schools and function systems. We show how the school becomes linked to an increasing number of symbolic media so that education becomes only one out of many other concerns. The article studies the consequences these shifting couplings have for how schools are governed and how they are expected to self-manage their relationship to different function systems. The article adds to existing studies of how education has become more and more differentiated with the argument that this has also led to new forms of couplings between schools and the education system with a number of important implications for the teaching profession.